unixadmin.free.fr Handy Unix Plumbing Tips and Tricks

Reclaiming volumes when out of scratch tapes

1. To start expiration issue the following command from a Tivoli Storage Manager command line:

EXPIre Inventory

2. Next, identify the RECLAMATION THRESHOLD is on your tape storage pool(s)

Query STGpool Format=Detail

3. If the threshold is set to 100 then adjust the reclamation threshold value down to a size that will cause reclamation to reclaim the volumes. *

UPDdate STGpool REClaim=

NOTE: Do not set the REClaim value lower that 50 as this will cause reclamation to run for an extended period of time.

* After expiration is finished you can see how many volumes would be reclaimed if the reclamation threshold were to be changed to a certain percent for your storage pool using the following command:

select count(*) from volumes where stgpool_name='XXXX' and upper(status)='FULL' and pct_utilized < ##

NOTE: Replace the XXXXX with the storage pool in UPPERCASE and the ## with the appropriate two digit numeric value.

Tivoli Storage Manager has the ability to run this at regular intervals during the day or at night. You will need to figure out what time would be the best for reclamation to run. After this you will need to check your system to see if it is set up to not run reclamation.

1. Check you DSMSERV.OPT file and make sure that the options NOMIGRRECL and EXPINTERVAL are not set. If they are set you will need to either remove them from the file or comment out the lines. Once this is done you will then need to stop and restart the Tivoli Storage Manager server so that it re-reads the file as these settings are retained in memory.

2. If the NOMIGRRECL and EXPINTERVAL were not in the file, then issue the following command

Query OPTions

Look for the ExpInterval in the first 'server option' column. The number to the right specifies the time, in hours, between automatic inventory expiration processes. You can specify from 0 to 336 (14 days). A value of 0 means that expiration must be manually started with the EXPIRE INVENTORY command. You can update this server option without stopping and restarting the server by using the SETOPT command.

SETOPT EXPINterval 24

In the above example, this command will cause Expiration to run every 24 hours.

3. If you then want to control when reclamation runs you can build some Administrative schedules to raise and lower the reclamation threshold.

DEFINE SCHEDULE ReclaimStart TYPE=ADMIN CMD="UPDATE STG REClaim= " ACTIVE=Yes DESC="Lower Reclamation Threshold" STARTT= DAY=ANY EXP=N

DEFINE SCHEDULE ReclaimStop TYPE=ADMIN CMD="UPDATE STG REClaim=100" ACTIVE=Yes DESC="Raise Reclamation Threshold" STARTT= DAY=ANY EXP=N

NOTE: In the second command set the time for 2 - 3 hours after the time you entered in the ReclaimStart command.

After accomplishing these three steps Tivoli Storage Manager will expire files and reclaim the volumes automatically everyday at the time you designated. Take into account that either of the two procedures stated above will need at least two scratch tapes available to move data off of the volumes it is reclaiming. If you do not have any scratch tapes available to initiate this in the beginning then you will need to perform the following steps.

1. Run the 'select' query from the first set of procedures after expiration is finished.

2. Manually move data from some of the Tape storage pool volumes to clear some space.

MOVe Data

This will move data from the volume to other volumes within the same storage pool.

3. Once this command is finished you then need to delete the volume from the storage pool with either one of the two following commands.

DEL V

DEL V DISCARD=Y

NOTE: Ensure that the move data command finished successfully (by reviewing the Tivoli Storage Manager server activity log) before running this command. If there is any data on the volume it will be deleted and lost from both the primary and copy storage pools.